


Tick Twice

by NYWCgirl



Series: Soft Kitty verse [33]
Category: White Collar
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Major Illness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-20
Updated: 2015-09-20
Packaged: 2018-04-22 13:19:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4836800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NYWCgirl/pseuds/NYWCgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal loves to hunt in El´s garden, between the bushes. There are all sorts of interesting creepy crawlies. Little does he know that some of them can have long term effects.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tick Twice

**Author's Note:**

> This story fills the ´Bites´ square on my H/C bingo card.

El wasn´t home and Peter had invited Neal to come over for dinner. When they arrived home, Peter had received a phone call he had to take, so Neal gestured that he would take Satchmo for a walk. He left through the backdoor. When Peter ended his call, he still heard Satchmo happily woofing in the back. That was strange, wasn´t Neal going to take him out. Maybe he had misinterpreted Neal´s signaling. When he opened the door, he could see Satchmo happily playing with Neal. Kitten Neal.

Neal was running through the back yard and fake attacking Satchmo, who was happily barking, every time Neal made a run for him. They seemed to be enjoying themselves, so Peter left the door open and called for takeout.

The food had already arrived when Neal and Satchmo came in. Peter had placed their kibble in the kitchen and ate his takeout at the kitchen island while watching the two animals.

When they were done, Peter cleaned their bowls, placed his stuff in the dishwasher and grabbed himself a beer. He walked over to the couch and sat down. He was glad to have some peace and quiet and tuned the television on the news. Neal skittered in front of Satchmo into the living room. Satchmo lay down on the floor at Peter´s feet, while Neal jumped on the couch and dropped himself in Peter´s lap, so he could be petted.

When Peter started petting him, Neal started purring. Peter had to admit it was relaxing, to have this purring kitten on his lap, Satchmo at his feet, and a cold beer in his hand.

After a while, Neal wanted to play and attacked Peter´s hand, so he ruffle Neal´s fur while he attacked each time, and Neal would bite and grab Peter´s hand in his paws. It was during one of those fake attacks that Peter noticed something in Neal´s fur. He held Neal down and investigated, seeing it was a tick. He sighed and walked to the kitchen where El kept a tick remover, so he quickly got rid of it, checking Neal and afterwards Satchmo as well, for ticks. He found two on Satchmo. When he was done, he went back to the couch and they had a nice relaxed evening.

 

* * *

 

Days later, Neal was tired; he had a slight headache and was feeling a bit under the weather. It had been a rough couple of days at the office, they had worked during the day and then had stake out duty during the evening. So with little sleep, Neal wasn´t surprised to have a headache and feel generally unwell. The other agents didn´t look much better.

When the case was solved and they went back to a more normal working pattern, Neal felt better.

 

* * *

 

Over time, Neal began to develop intermittent pain in tendons, muscles, and joints. Sometime he could swear he had pain in his bones. He hadn´t felt like that since he was a child and suffer from growing pains. Peter had joked about it that as he was nearing forty, it was only going downhill from now on.

The team had teased Neal with his aging and they had a good laugh with Neal. But overnight, Neal´s headache started getting worse. He had to admit, drinking wine with Mozzie hadn´t helped, in the morning the headache started to become persistent. He had taken some Tylenol and waited downstairs for Peter to take him to the office. When he got in the car, he had handed over Peter´s travel mug with June´s coffee and they were on their way.

In the office, Peter had gone to his office and Neal sat down at his desk, scanning through the folders on his desk. Somewhere around eleven o´clock, Diana had walked up to his desk to ask if he wanted to go and pick up some coffee for the team. He was glad to be able to leave the office for a coffee run, so he accepted her offer. Maybe he would feel better in the open air.

When they walked back with the two trays of coffee, Neal walked past the main entrance of office.

“Caffrey, where are you going?” Diana called out to him.

Neal turned and looked in confusion to her. When he realized he had walked straight past the door, he laughed and shrugged his shoulders.

“Peter is making you work too hard.” Diana quipped.

“Yeah, I guess I was pre-occupied.”

Neal followed her into the building. When they entered the elevator, Diana could see that Neal´s cheeks were flushed.

“Are you OK? You look a bit peeped.”

“I´m fine, just a bit under the weather. I will be glad when the weekend arrives, so I can sleep in.”

“You´re not the only one.” Diana laughed.

Neal dragged himself through the rest of the day with help of some Tylenol. At five Peter took pity in Neal and suggested that they close shop for the day. Neal gave a grateful small smile. During the ride, Neal was unusual silent and he wasn´t fidgeting with the radio. When they arrived in front of June´s mansion, Neal almost stumbled out of the car.

“Are you, OK?” Peter asked worried.

“Yeah, fine, see you tomorrow.”

Peter was eyeing Neal suspiciously, was Neal slurring his words?

“Tomorrow is Saturday, we´re off.” Peter reminded Neal.

There was a moment there was a hint of confusion on Neal´s face and then the smile was back.

“Of course. See you on Monday.”

“If there is something, you know you can call me. Right?”

“Yeah, I know. Have a nice weekend and give my regards to Elizabeth.”

Neal closed the door of the car and watched Peter driving off.

 

* * *

 

Neal dragged himself up the stairs and was glad June wasn´t home. This way he had peace and quiet, as far as he knew, Mozzie was also out of town, so he had his apartment for himself. He stumbled to the kitchenette and took a bottle of water out of the fridge. He was so thirsty that he guzzled it down. He must be coming down with the flu, his joints ached, his head hurt and he was generally miserable. He decided against eating and made his way over to the bathroom to take a hot shower. When he arrived in the bathroom he was not sure why he had entered the room. He looked around but couldn´t think of a reason to come here, so he left again and got undressed, letting his clothes drop to the floor. When he heard the thunk of his phone hitting the ground, he bent over and picked the phone out of his trouser pocket. He placed it on the nightstand.

 

He woke because of the chill he felt. When he opened his eyes and took stock of himself, he couldn´t think why he was laying on top of the covers in his underwear.

He was hot, so that would explain, why he was not under the covers, but he couldn´t think of a reason why he wouldn´t put on his pajama bottoms. While he was thinking, he noticed how thirsty he was, so he wanted to get up from the bed to get some water, but his neck hurt and his joints hurt worse than before. So he decided against getting up and with difficulty pulled up the covers. Then he remembered he had some Nyquil in his nightstand. He rummaged through it, found the strip and put the two pills in his mouth and dry-swallowed them.

 

* * *

 

Peter had arrived home still thinking of Neal. He was probably coming down with something. He had noticed the flush on Neal´s cheeks, while he was overall pale. When he opened the door, Satchmo welcomed him and Peter momentarily forgot about his CI. He quickly changed into something more comfortable and took Satchmo out for a walk. El had a venue up town so he grabbed something to eat along the way.

When he arrived home, he got a text not to forget to cool the beer for poker night. So he fed Satchmo, grabbed a beer and took out some snacks El had bought for the men.

Around eight o´clock, the first players rang his doorbell.

They had a pleasant evening, sharing stories, having a beer and playing cards. When the last guest left, Peter cleaned up the kitchen, it was already way past midnight and he was still in doubt whether or not to stay up for El. She had told him to go to bed, she would take a cab home.

When his phone rang, he thought it was El telling him she was on her way or that she was having a drink with the girls. But when he checked the caller ID, he saw it was Neal.

When he answered his phone, he heard nothing. Thinking Neal must have been pocket dialing, he wanted to disconnect the phone, when he heard what sounded like a low moan.

“Neal?”

“Neal? Are you OK?”

When he didn´t get a response, he quickly made his way out grabbing his car keys… he was already out the door, when he realized he had a couple of beers. He cursed himself for having the beers, but there was nothing he could do about it right now.

He grabbed his phone and called a cab, luckily there was one in the neighborhood and within minutes he was on his way to June´s house.

When he arrived at the house, he realized there was nobody home. He rang the bell, but as to be expected, nobody answered the door. Mozzie taught him to pick locks, but he didn´t have his lock pick set with him. Stupid, why hadn´t he thought of that before he left his home. Because he didn´t expect to be breaking into someone´s home in the middle of the night.

He didn´t want to disturb Diana and Theo, so he called Jones and asked to bring him a lock pick set. Luckily he was still awake so he was there within ten minutes. Peter took the picks and started on the lock. It wasn´t as easy as he thought it would be and he cursed that he hadn´t practiced more. But eventually he got the lock open and both men ran upstairs.

When Peter opened the door, he scanned the room and found Neal lying on the bed with the phone in his hand. He seemed to be awake, so Peter slowly made his way over, not to startle Neal.

“Hey Neal. Are you not feeling well?”

He could see Neal´s eyes follow him, but he didn´t respond.

“Neal? Jones, call 911.”

Peter fell Neal´s forehead and could feel the heat radiating off Neal, the strange thing was that Neal seemed to be awake, although barely, but he didn´t say anything.

“Neal, can you tell me what is wrong?”

Peter could see that Neal was trying to move his lips, but no words came out.

“It´s Ok, buddy, we are taking you to the hospital. Everything is going to be OK.”

Jones came back to tell Peter that the ambulance was on its way.

“How is he doing?” Jones asked.

“I don´t know, he is aware, I think, but he isn´t responding to my question.”

“I´m heading downstairs to open the door for the paramedics.” Jones announced.

 

Peter slowly stroked Neal´s shoulder and arm in a comforting gesture. He could see Neal glancing up at him but his eyes were only expressing confusion. It was heartbreaking to see.

“It´s OK, Neal, everything is going to be OK.”

 

Peter heard a faint sound of sirens and then people walking up the stairs.

Jones showed the EMT´s in and Peter stood up to make way so they could examine Neal.

“His name is Neal.” Peter provided.

“Hey Neal, I´m Miguel and this here is my partner Rowen. Can you please tell me what is wrong?”

Neal only stared in confusion to Miguel, then his gaze shifted to Peter. But he didn´t say anything.

“Ok, I´m going to check your vitals, this will be a bit cold. “ Miguel rubbed the stethoscope on his pants and placed it on Neal´s chest, but still Neal flinched and with it came a low moan.

“I´m sorry Neal, I know it is uncomfortable.”

After the quick examination, Miguel told his partner they would transport Neal to NYP. They lifted Neal to the gurney and started the slow descend to the ambulance.

 

* * *

 

When Neal woke, he had a feeling that he had run a marathon; the fatigue was so overwhelming that he only wanted to close his eyes. This was no flu. He needed to call someone. After some time he realized his telephone was next to him on the nightstand and he fumbled to get it. His fingers dialed on muscle memory and he heard Peter answering. But he couldn´t get a word out.

Words were bouncing in his head, but he couldn´t get them out. He couldn´t remember how to talk. His fear intensified. What was happening? Was he having a stroke?

“Hey Neal. Are you not feeling well?”

Neal startled in his head, but for some reason his body didn´t react. He tried to see who was talking. It sounded like Peter.

“Neal? Jones, call 911.”

Neal could feel Peter touching his face. He wanted to tell Peter that he couldn´t talk, but nothing came out.

“Neal, can you tell me what is wrong?”

This was getting frustrated. He wanted to let Peter know that he wasn´t alright. That he needed help, that he was having a stroke.

“It´s Ok, buddy, we are taking you to the hospital. Everything is going to be OK.”

“The ambulance is on its way. They are a couple of minutes out. How is he doing?”

I am not fine, come on guys, can´t you see? Neal wanted to do something, but his body wasn´t responding at all.

“I don´t know, he is aware, I think, but he isn´t responding to my question.”

“I´m heading downstairs to open the door for the paramedics.”

Neal could feel Peter stroking his should and arm. It would have been a comforting gesture, if he wasn´t freaking out. Why was he even here, laying in bed? What happened?

“It´s OK, Neal, everything is going to be OK.”

He was so tired. What had happened? There was someone sitting next to him, but he didn´t look familiar? Did he?

“His name is Neal.”

Neal? Was the guy´s name Neal? Neal was all confused.

“Hey Neal, I´m Miguel and this here is my partner Rowen. Can you please tell me what is wrong?”

Who were these men and what were they doing here? What was happening?

“Ok, I´m going to check your vitals, this will be a bit cold. “

Something cold touched his overheated skin and he flinched.

“I´m sorry Neal, I know it is uncomfortable.”

Then he was suddenly moving. He closed his eyes as the motion made him sick.

When the moving stopped, Neal tried to open his eyes, but the lights were so bright he closed them quickly.

He heard sounds and voices, but he couldn´t distinguish any person. It was a cacophony of noise and lights.

 

* * *

When a patient was brought in with a stroke was brought in at the ER, Doctor Wise immediately ordered an MRI and other tests. The man was young, but a stroke was always a possibility. He didn´t seem to be able to talk and a slight facial palsy could be detected. But all the results returned inconclusive.

Peter had been informed about the tests and the doctor had asked Peter if he wanted to keep Neal company while they waited for the results. Peter had grabbed the offer to see Neal again. He had asked Jones to get Elizabeth.

When Peter had first entered the room, Neal had stared blankly at him. Once Peter started talking to him and rubbed his arm, Peter could see a hint of recognition. He told Neal everything was going to be Ok. That the doctors would find out what was happening with him and that they would cure it.

The doctor was checking Neal´s vitals, when Peter asked if Neal could have been poisoned. The doctor agreed it was a possibility, especially in their line of work, but he doubted it. He told Peter he would order blood tests, but he wanted to rule out other things first.

The doctor ordered a lumbar puncture and some blood tests. Once they were done, Neal was admitted. A nurse replenished the IV´s. Once they were done, Neal was so tired, he couldn´t keep his eyes open. He didn´t even feel the nurse placing an oxygen mask over his face.

Peter had to admit he was worried, what if Neal had a stroke? Would he be able to recover from it? Would there be lasting effects?

When doctor Wise came back in, Peter stood up. Neal was still sleeping so Peter asked the doctor to explain the results to him as he was Neal´s medical proxy.

“Well, the test results came back, the diagnosis is clear: TBE, Tick Borne encephalitis.” The doctor explained.

“Encephalitis?”

“Yes, it also explains the inability to talk and the slight facial paralysis. Unfortunately the disease is incurable once it manifest. We will offer supportive care based on Neal´s symptoms.”

“And what do we have to expect in the long run?”

“I am going to start a rehabilitation plan similar to a stroke recovery.”

Peter was thinking when Neal could have had a tick bite. And then suddenly it dawned on him. He had removed ticks from Satchmo and Neal after they had been out in the back yard.

The doctor continued to explain that Neal would need appointments with speech therapists, physical therapists, cognitive therapists. The doctor warned him, Neal would be OK, but was in for a long recovery.

 

* * *

 

Once he was discharged from the hospital, Neal struggled to retain the life he knew. Poor concentration plagued him and he needed five naps a day, just to make it through the day, and that was without working. Fatigue overwhelmed him, it overwhelmed him so much, he didn´t even have the strength to get depressed about it.

Once he was back home, June´s staff would go up every half hour to check on Neal, as he sometime laid down on the recliners on his balcony and fall asleep outside. Whenever they found him like that, they would make sure he was covered with soft blankets June had bought for him. They all checked on Neal, Mozzie, June, Her staff, even her driver would take turns to go up there, as Neal refused to take a room on the ground floor.

The loss of smell and taste, although only slightly, became better over time and June´s cook made sure that all the food was spiced accordingly. The aphasia was harder to get rid of and irritated Neal to no end. But with the help of a speech therapist, he came a long way.

Neal´s joint pain eventually improved, but he continued to feel tired and lethargic for the rest of the summer. Although he wanted to be outside running, he just didn’t have the energy that summer. It wasn’t until fall that he was able to slowly get back to his normal, active lifestyle.

**Author's Note:**

> Thick borne encephalitis is a serious disease; find more information here and here.  
> http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/tick-borne-encephalitis/Pages/Introduction.aspx  
> http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/tbe/


End file.
